Senior Reyare Thomas highlighted Abilene Christian's first day of competition at the 2014 Southland Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships by breaking a 13-year old meet record in the 200-meter dash.

A native of Chaguanas, Trinidad and Tobago, Thomas finished first overall in the 200m preliminaries with a time of 23.89 seconds that eclipsed the previous standard of 24.14 set in 2001 by Tonette Dyer of Lousiana-Monroe. Brarysheyia Simpson - a junior from Stephen F. Austin - also beat that mark with her runner-up qualifying time of 24.13.

Last winter here at the Birmingham Crossplex, Thomas set a new ACU record in the 200m with her fourth-place D-II all-America performance of 23.51 seconds as she became the first Wildcat in team history to run under 24.00 seconds on multiple occasions. And her fastest time of this season remains 23.79, which she recorded in Lubbock on Feb. 1.

Earlier in the afternoon, Thomas qualified second in the 60-meter dash prelims with a time of 7.51 that was .01 seconds behind Simpson (7.50). Thomas will be joined in Thursday's sprint finals by sophomore Johnathan Farquharson, who placed sixth in the 200m prelims (21.68) and seventh in the 60m prelims (6.86).

Northwestern State senior Justin Walker qualified first in each of those events with times of 21.22 and 6.73. His 200m time is a meet record.

Also making it into the finals from today were ACU junior Daniel Block in the 800m and senior Lexus Williams in the 60-meter hurdles. Block placed fourth during prelims with a time of 1:55.25, while Williams claimed the eighth and final qualifying position with a mark of 8.83.

But just missing the scoreboard on Wednesday were the ninth-place men's and women's distance medley relays, sophomore Josh Bloom, who placed ninth in the shot put (14.39 meters / 47-feet-02.50 inches), and sophomore Luke Woods, who failed to qualify for the 60-meter hurdles finals by a mere .03 seconds.

Woods, however, delivered several solid performances during the first day of the heptathlon. Last year's surprise Lone Star Conference Champion in this event today placed sixth in the 60m, eighth in the long jump and fourth in the long jump and shot put. His shot put distance was a career best 40-05.5 (12.20m), which earned him 619 of his 2,645 first-day points. Woods currently is in fourth place behind Markus Leemet of New Orleans (2869), Jamal Davis of SFA (2750) and Tarvoris Mack of Southeastern Louisiana (2724).

Woods' classmate Jeremy Tatham is 10th in the heptathlon with 2,433 first-day points despite posting personal records in the high jump, long jump and shot put.

In the women's pentathlon, freshman Taylor Yantis recorded a PR in each of the five events to place seventh overall with 3,253 points. Her performance is the third highest in school history - behind Jessica Withrow's 3,653 points and Cassie Brooks 3,407 points - and earned the ACU women two of their four team points.

The remaining two points for the ACU women's team were scored by senior Shalania Lakey in the hammer throw as she placed seventh behind a distance of 55-08.25 (16.97m), while on the men's side, senior Darian Hogg collected all three ACU points after placing sixth in the long jump with an indoor personal record of 23-10.25 (7.27m).

Led by Yantis' five PRs, the Wildcats on Wednesday totaled 14 new personal bests among their 25 competitors.

Through five scored events in the women's standings, defending champion Stephen F. Austin leads the pack of 12 teams with 32 points but is closely followed by Sam Houston State (29), Central Arkansas (27), McNeese State (21) and Lamar (21).

Southeastern Louisiana leads in the men's standings with 56 points, but the defending champion Lumberjacks are close behind with 51 points. Lamar is a distance third with 26 points, but there are still 11 championships left to be determined starting with the final three events of the pentathlon and concluding with the 4x400-meter relay.

Events resume Thursday at 8:30 a.m. with the heptathlon 60m hurdles. The awards ceremony is slated to begin at 5 p.m.